1. Promise Communities Julianne Nickerson, Director Coaches:
Emilie Kornheiser
Mark McMillen
Shannon Hottinger
Overview of Promise Communities
Child Development Division of Department of Children and Families in the Agency of Human Services
Early Learning Challenge Grant initiative

3. To support VT communities to realize the promise of every child
Mission
To support VT communities to realize the promise of every child
This aligns with the state mission to realize the promise of every child.

4. Goal
Community collaborations will do ‘whatever it takes’ to improve the educational and developmental outcomes for children in their communities.

5. Opportunity
Promise communities will leverage the state resources, initiatives and partnerships into targeted high-intensity supports to build local infrastructure and coalesce local resources in order to improve outcomes for young children in our highest need, rural communities.
As part of the Early Learning Challenge federal grant, Vermont is given this opportunity to develop a place based initiative to support young children and families. This is about looking at the community and seeing what the needs are in that community. We want to support what is working well and enhance that, and if pieces are missing figure out what is not there and how we make it work for families and children.
There will six communities identified this year. And in the following three years we hope to reach a total of about 20 communities.

6. What is a community?
Coalition of people supporting young children birth to age six
Community will include at least one local elementary school
Will reach at least 40 children
So we will start with what do we mean by a community? The focus of the work will be on the birth to six population. We recognize that early childhood is to age 8. Our impact goal is to reach the children up to age 8 by looking at K readiness and 3rd grade achievement.
This work is modeled off the Harlem Children’s Zone work by Jeffery Cananada. In Harlem they are able to identify city blocks (starting with 24 growing to 97 city blocks) that create the zone. Rural Vermont does not have city blocks to use as our boundaries, so we are using the elementary school as the central element of community. This is NOT a school based program that we are developing. School role is more about where the young children will end up for K and in 3rd grade. Overall the size we looking for is not as large as a whole county or Agency of Human Services district. It is great if two Supervisory Unions/districts join together, or parts of Supervisory Unions join with elementary schools to be a community. So think about the town (or towns) that wraps around the elementary school and the needs of that town when identifying your community. The minimum number of children in the population of birth to 6 year olds we want to serve is 40, so if a town does not have 40 young children then who are the partnering towns to work with?

7. Promise Community Selection Priorities
Impact of poverty in your community
How prepared are the children for Kindergarten?
How are the 3rd graders achieving in your school?
Does your community have access to high quality care and education?
We know not all children are thriving and despite our best efforts there are still barriers to children’s success. In the packet this data is given to you, look at the data see where your community falls. We are looking closely at this data to help us decide what communities to choose.

8. What does a Promise Community get?
A coach to facilitate the process with the local Promise Community team
Promise Community Roadmap- needs assessment and community level plan
Financial support to implement the plan
Evaluation team support to monitor progress
To remind you there are 3 coaches hired to work on this initiative. They will serve 2 communities each in year one. Coaches will meet the chosen communities and begin the work to get to know the community and work with the Promise Community Team to develop a needs assessment and community Roadmap. Once the roadmap is in place the financial needs will become apparent to the community and then funding will be given. The goal is to support the community to improve outcomes for young children, by helping them prepare for Kindergarten and achieve.

9. What are the Expectations of the Promise Community?
Commit to doing “Whatever it takes” to turn the curve to serve young children and families of the community
Attend regular meetings of the Promise Community collaborators to develop the Promise Community roadmap (weekly to monthly)
Support the implementation of the plan
Collaborate with an evaluation team to develop and collect short term data; and develop a longitudinal data plan to track the progress of the work, beyond the time of the coach participation
Collaborate with the various partners to allow for sustainability of the Promise Community roadmap
We are working on the contract with Flint Springs Associates to do the evaluation of Promise Communities. They will be working closely with the coaches and the communities to ensure we are making a difference.

10. Collaboration
Governor Action Plan
BBF state council and RTT Implementation
Promise Community Statewide Advisory Team
BBF Regional Council
Promise Community
Promise Community Team
Promise Community team- school, AHS field Director, BBF Coordinator, child medical provider, other community partners- library, ECE, head start, Parks and Rec, parents
ACTION PLAN----REGIONAL PLAN----local ROAD MAP

11. More information? http://dcf.vermont.gov/cdd
Julianne Nickerson, Director
Central Region:
Shannon Hottinger
Southern Region:
Emilie Kornheiser
Northern Region:
Mark McMillen
Please think about your communities you live in or doo any of your work. Spread the word and have people consider becoming a Promise Community. Help us fulfill our mission to realize the Promise of every VT child.